52 



Photographs by Lavis, Eastbourne. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE MINIATURE BULLDOG. 



BY THE LADY KATHLEEN PILKINGTON. 



" Pelle'as had a great, bulging, powerful forehead, like that of Socrates or Verlaine ; and, under a 

 little black nose, blunt as a churlish assent, a fair of large, hanging and symmetrical chops, which 

 made his head a sort of massive, obstinate, pensive, and three-cornered menace. He was beautiful 

 after the manner of a beautiful natural monster that has complied strictly with the lazes of his 

 species. And what a smile of attentive obligingness, of incorruptible innocence, of affectionate 

 submission, of boundless gratitude, and total self-abandonment, lit up, at the least caress, that 

 adorable mask of ugliness!" — Maeterlinck. 



TOY Bulldogs are an acquired taste," 

 said a friend to me ; and while I was 

 meditating an adequate reply, he 

 rashly added : " Like coffee or caviare." 

 This gave me my opening, and I hastened to 

 assure him that there is nobody — who is any- 

 body, that is to say — who does not nowadays 

 both know and highly appreciate coffee, cavi- 

 are, and Toy Bulldogs ! Not to so do would 

 be, indeed, to argue oneself unknown ! It is 

 also another of the many proofs that history 

 repeats herself. For fifty or sixty years 

 ago, Toy — or, rather, as a recent edict 

 of the Kennel Club requires them to be 

 dubbed, Miniature — Bulldogs were common 

 objects of the canine country-side. In 

 fact, you can hardly ever talk for ten 



minutes to any Bulldog breeder of old 

 standing without his telling you tall stories 

 of the wonderful little Bulldogs, weighing 

 about fifteen or sixteen pounds, he either 

 knew or owned, in those long-past days ! 



Prominent among those who made a 

 cult of these " Bantams " were the lace- 

 workers of Nottingham, and many prints 

 are extant which bear witness to the excellent 

 little specimens they bred. But a wave of 

 unpopularity overwhelmed them, and they 

 faded across the Channel to France, where, 

 if, as is asserted, our Gallic neighbours 

 appreciated them highly, they cannot be 

 said to have taken much care to preserve 

 their best points. When, in 1898, a small 

 but devoted band of admirers revived 



